Beer League Frustrations Vent Thread.

Recently made a huge leap in my on ice vision, passing, and puck protection. My shot also got a hell of a lot better, never in my life have I been able to put it together like I have it right now. So last Tuesday a lot of good players are at the skate, I think great, now there's no need to hold back. Then my left blade goes dull inexplicably, to the point where I couldn't pivot in either direction on it. So I tread through the game and do enough not to be useless but otherwise don't stand out (unless you count a 2 on 0 tap in standing out.)

Not exactly beer league, but i play every few days at one outdoor rink around town.

I went one day, and there was a guy clearly better than everyone there, mostly kids (13 and under) and a few of me and my buddies who have never played organized hockey, just 3 seasons on the out door ice. Needless to say we weren't even close to his level.

So we threw our sticks in and this guy ends up on a team with my friend and some of the kids. He never passed, deked through kids on his own team, and just insisted on making everyone look stupid.

He got around me, missed the shot and as i was going off to switch, he came by and put it through my legs while i wasnt facing him and started chirping me.

Eventually we all got fed up and stopped playing with him. So a dad and his son come out, the son wearing like, road hockey goalie gear but wants us to shoot on him, so we all gently shoot and keep it low and are having fun.

The guy who insisted on showing everyone up, then comes out and hammers a shot top shelf on the kid, and started chirping the 12 year old in net.

I absolutely lost it. Next move he tried around me, i knocked him on his ass. He kept his head down and all times so i hit him in the chest, and he fell flat on his ass. After this he starts slashing me, tripping me, and just abusing me in general on the ice.

I want to preface this part with saying that i'm not a mean guy, i'm really shy and quiet and have never been into a fight, im always the kind to talk this stuff out.

So i threw my gloves down and challenged him to a fight after he made one of the kids cry because the kid hadn't touched the puck all night being on his team.

The kid blew me off like he didnt want to fight, so i told him to quit being a dumbass and we would be fine, then as i skated away he shoved me from behind down to the ice.

I got up, and as he was laughing in my face, fed him my fist.

I have never felt so good about putting someone in their place.

He ended up trying to get up and falling flat on his face before his friends came and forced him to come off the ice. I'm not sure if it was my punch or the ice, but there was blood pouring out of his nose.

Sorry for the essay like response, i just figured people here would understand where i was coming from.

Hah that is an AWESOME story.

I've been lucky and 98% of the time I've played with a player that was heads and tails above everyone else, they've used the ice time to put on a passing clinic.

Not exactly beer league, but i play every few days at one outdoor rink around town.

I went one day, and there was a guy clearly better than everyone there, mostly kids (13 and under) and a few of me and my buddies who have never played organized hockey, just 3 seasons on the out door ice. Needless to say we weren't even close to his level.

So we threw our sticks in and this guy ends up on a team with my friend and some of the kids. He never passed, deked through kids on his own team, and just insisted on making everyone look stupid.

He got around me, missed the shot and as i was going off to switch, he came by and put it through my legs while i wasnt facing him and started chirping me.

Eventually we all got fed up and stopped playing with him. So a dad and his son come out, the son wearing like, road hockey goalie gear but wants us to shoot on him, so we all gently shoot and keep it low and are having fun.

The guy who insisted on showing everyone up, then comes out and hammers a shot top shelf on the kid, and started chirping the 12 year old in net.

I absolutely lost it. Next move he tried around me, i knocked him on his ass. He kept his head down and all times so i hit him in the chest, and he fell flat on his ass. After this he starts slashing me, tripping me, and just abusing me in general on the ice.

I want to preface this part with saying that i'm not a mean guy, i'm really shy and quiet and have never been into a fight, im always the kind to talk this stuff out.

So i threw my gloves down and challenged him to a fight after he made one of the kids cry because the kid hadn't touched the puck all night being on his team.

The kid blew me off like he didnt want to fight, so i told him to quit being a dumbass and we would be fine, then as i skated away he shoved me from behind down to the ice.

I got up, and as he was laughing in my face, fed him my fist.

I have never felt so good about putting someone in their place.

He ended up trying to get up and falling flat on his face before his friends came and forced him to come off the ice. I'm not sure if it was my punch or the ice, but there was blood pouring out of his nose.

Sorry for the essay like response, i just figured people here would understand where i was coming from.

Had something similar to that playing pick up roller on time. It was a mix of younger guys 15-20 and some guys in their mid to late 20s. A few of the younger kids were new to the game and just trying to figure things out. One of the older guys was just being a ***** in general running around laying the stick and body on like its OT in game 7 of the SC finals. He finally lays into some kid who cant see him coming. Needless to say, he couldnt figure out why I put the shoulder into him and one thing led to another and we got into a little bit of a tussle with no punches thrown. I dont know what pissed him off more, the fact that I actually had the gall to play him like he was playing or the fact that i was 19 a few inches shorter and a few lbs lighter and he couldn't overpower me like he though he could.

Both of us ended up getting kicked out of pick up and it actually ended up costing me a spot on a team but it was worth it to me to go out of my way to make sure the kids learning to play werent discouraged from some ******* who couldnt handle the fact that his dreams of making the NHL were long gone.

I played pond hockey last winter with an Olympic player, her ridiculously good husband and kids, and a bunch of varsity HS players that will probably end up playing pro hockey. All of them were really good at passing and being very generous with the puck. It's so amazingly easy to catch passes when a pro player is feeding them

Every hockey player should have enough respect and humility to be able to go out and play pond hockey regardless of how good or bad everyone else is. You should be able to have the 5 year olds who can barely stand up play with the NHL'ers and everyone has a good time. That's working on a crucial skill, being a good sport and teammate.

Twice in the past few months, I've had a player hit me while my back was turned to them and while I was down on the ice. Last night I had the other player's foot locked between my legs after he had cross checked me to the ice (from behind, naturally) ...he couldn't get loose, so instead of trying to free himself by taking a dive to try to draw a penalty, like a sane person would do, he dropped 220 pounds of obesity as hard as he could right onto my back while I was facedown on the ice.

I'm not sure there is a beer league anywhere that allows checking, but for the most part, I'll tolerate people throwing hits at me if the following conditions apply:

1.) The hit would otherwise be a legal hit in a checking league.
2.) I have a noticeable skill advantage to the player attempting to check me, and
3.) I have my head up and know a collision is coming

A lot of people in these leagues started skating as adults, myself included, and have never played at any level with legal checking, and subsequently, don't have the instincts to prepare and protect themselves when someone decides to take a shot at them. What makes attempting to hit people worse is that the people making the hits usually are doing it out of frustration, and do it when the target player is in a vulnerable position.

There are probably a lot of people even on here reading this that sometimes have trouble controlling their emotions: there is NEVER a justified reason to hit a player while their back is turned.

Twice in the past few months, I've had a player hit me while my back was turned to them and while I was down on the ice. Last night I had the other player's foot locked between my legs after he had cross checked me to the ice (from behind, naturally) ...he couldn't get loose, so instead of trying to free himself by taking a dive to try to draw a penalty, like a sane person would do, he dropped 220 pounds of obesity as hard as he could right onto my back while I was facedown on the ice.

I'm not sure there is a beer league anywhere that allows checking, but for the most part, I'll tolerate people throwing hits at me if the following conditions apply:

1.) The hit would otherwise be a legal hit in a checking league.
2.) I have a noticeable skill advantage to the player attempting to check me, and
3.) I have my head up and know a collision is coming

A lot of people in these leagues started skating as adults, myself included, and have never played at any level with legal checking, and subsequently, don't have the instincts to prepare and protect themselves when someone decides to take a shot at them. What makes attempting to hit people worse is that the people making the hits usually are doing it out of frustration, and do it when the target player is in a vulnerable position.

There are probably a lot of people even on here reading this that sometimes have trouble controlling their emotions: there is NEVER a justified reason to hit a player while their back is turned.

I'm pretty sure i saw this happen. Was this in Brandon, towards the end of the game? I was watching the end cause i was going on for the next game. Didn't see the hit, but i saw the ensuing scrum.

Whats worse than blowing a 4-2 lead in the 3rd with 5 mins to go, having the game tied with 20 seconds to go till a shootout. What do we do, we send our useless 55 year old female defensemen onto he ice and the other team promptly speeds past her. Want to know what makes it worse, our other dman locks the guy down on his breakaway and out goalie thought it would be a wonderful idea to rush out of his net to cut the guy off while the dman is locking down the other teams forward, WTF!!! I play goalie and you stay in your net cause the forward can't get in front, he has no shot! But nope he rushes out, is waaaaay outta position and teh forward manages to chip the puck in andddd we lose. I dont mind losing but I hate to lose like this, SOOOO pissed.

Twice in the past few months, I've had a player hit me while my back was turned to them and while I was down on the ice. Last night I had the other player's foot locked between my legs after he had cross checked me to the ice (from behind, naturally) ...he couldn't get loose, so instead of trying to free himself by taking a dive to try to draw a penalty, like a sane person would do, he dropped 220 pounds of obesity as hard as he could right onto my back while I was facedown on the ice.

I'm not sure there is a beer league anywhere that allows checking, but for the most part, I'll tolerate people throwing hits at me if the following conditions apply:

1.) The hit would otherwise be a legal hit in a checking league.
2.) I have a noticeable skill advantage to the player attempting to check me, and
3.) I have my head up and know a collision is coming

A lot of people in these leagues started skating as adults, myself included, and have never played at any level with legal checking, and subsequently, don't have the instincts to prepare and protect themselves when someone decides to take a shot at them. What makes attempting to hit people worse is that the people making the hits usually are doing it out of frustration, and do it when the target player is in a vulnerable position.

There are probably a lot of people even on here reading this that sometimes have trouble controlling their emotions: there is NEVER a justified reason to hit a player while their back is turned.

I agree with the principle. If you are going to hit someone, make sure they are facing you.

I have my first tournament coming up this weekend. I'm acting as a 'warm body' for a team coming in from out of town. It's a women's team. I've warned them that I've only been playing for 8 weeks now, so if the warm body is important enough to them to risk having me on the ice, I'm game for it. They said they have other beginners, so hopefully I won't be completely out of my league, so to speak.

I've been playing 2X a week, with a women's drop-in league as well as my D-league and adult beginner class. I've come from being completely lost on the ice to having a vague idea of where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. I haven't really hindered my teams in the last few games, and a few times I've actually helped (a couple of goals, an assist, getting the puck out from in front of the goal, blocking a few shots). I have to say that with such a wide variety of game situations I've played in, I haven't been able to really focus on playing one particular position. In my D-league, I've played LW and that's been the most stable/predictable situation. I am pretty sure I'll either be LW or RW in the tournament. In the women's drop-in, I've been stuck in a 3 on 3 game with no line changes (because there were ONLY 3 players for each team); I've played in a 4 on 4 situation and only once were there enough to have actual lines that we could do shifts on. Last week I ended up doing C for a couple of shifts and D for one shift (yikes, don't wanna do that again until I feel good about going backwards). So I haven't had a lot of time to really get things solidified. My coach at D-league did give me basic advice about where to be when the puck is in front of our goal, etc.

So, what would you suggest would be the MOST helpful things for me to keep in mind as I play this weekend? AFAIK, everyone is doing this for fun rather than out of some desire to win the tournament, get noticed by the NHL, etc. If you had a n00b player on your team who was OK at skating (but not great) and is pretty much guaranteed not to make huge goals or anything else, but is really trying to be helpful rather than a nuisance, what would you want to see them do?

From the thread, I'm thinking one thing I definitely want to focus on is not panicking when I get the puck - take a look around and see where I want to take it or send it. I am getting better on that, from where I was a few weeks ago. I don't get the puck often, but when I do I actually can do something constructive with it from time to time.

I have this guy that occasionally I have to play on a line with who I think I want to kill. Every time I get a pass and start to progress the puck I hear screams of "hey I'm open!" and "pass it pass it!" When i do pass him the puck he'll try to rush it the entire length of the ice and when he gets into the offensive zone he'll just try to take a wrist shot from a foot inside the zone thinking he'll score. When he tries his god awful moves around people he'll lose the puck and blame it on people not being open to pass it to.

The icing on the cake was the other day he asked me if I thought I was Ovechkin because I try to dangle around everyone. If he knew anything about hockey I was using the ice the defender game me so that I could buy time for the trailer to get into the slot for a pass. I want to strangle him.

So it's not beer league, but my usual 6am drop in today. There is this angry slovak guy that always comes, and he must not have been taught how to filter the **** coming out of his mouth. He is the guy that makes quiet comments under his breath at guys that are not as good as him, and he really is not that good himself. So i've been playing for 5 months or so, I'm 27 now and only played a year of peewee... so im not the greatest player. I shoot the puck on a breakeaway that goes over the net this morning, and this ****** skates up to me and says "what the hell are you doing? You play hockey like a retard". I almost lost my ****ing mind. I remain calm enough to tell him I've been playing for 5 months, and that he needs to think twice about trying to intimidate me, because it sure as hell isnt going to work. I then call him a ****ing **** sucker, and i think he is so used to people being afraid of him that he was kinda shocked. Anyways, he shut up real quick and i heckled him for about 30 minutes after that anytime he made a mistake. Im still pissed just thinking about it , but at 6'2 200lb im not taking **** from some idiot at rec hockey who wants to get all tough guy on me.

I have my first tournament coming up this weekend. I'm acting as a 'warm body' for a team coming in from out of town. It's a women's team. I've warned them that I've only been playing for 8 weeks now, so if the warm body is important enough to them to risk having me on the ice, I'm game for it. They said they have other beginners, so hopefully I won't be completely out of my league, so to speak.

I've been playing 2X a week, with a women's drop-in league as well as my D-league and adult beginner class. I've come from being completely lost on the ice to having a vague idea of where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. I haven't really hindered my teams in the last few games, and a few times I've actually helped (a couple of goals, an assist, getting the puck out from in front of the goal, blocking a few shots). I have to say that with such a wide variety of game situations I've played in, I haven't been able to really focus on playing one particular position. In my D-league, I've played LW and that's been the most stable/predictable situation. I am pretty sure I'll either be LW or RW in the tournament. In the women's drop-in, I've been stuck in a 3 on 3 game with no line changes (because there were ONLY 3 players for each team); I've played in a 4 on 4 situation and only once were there enough to have actual lines that we could do shifts on. Last week I ended up doing C for a couple of shifts and D for one shift (yikes, don't wanna do that again until I feel good about going backwards). So I haven't had a lot of time to really get things solidified. My coach at D-league did give me basic advice about where to be when the puck is in front of our goal, etc.

So, what would you suggest would be the MOST helpful things for me to keep in mind as I play this weekend? AFAIK, everyone is doing this for fun rather than out of some desire to win the tournament, get noticed by the NHL, etc. If you had a n00b player on your team who was OK at skating (but not great) and is pretty much guaranteed not to make huge goals or anything else, but is really trying to be helpful rather than a nuisance, what would you want to see them do?

From the thread, I'm thinking one thing I definitely want to focus on is not panicking when I get the puck - take a look around and see where I want to take it or send it. I am getting better on that, from where I was a few weeks ago. I don't get the puck often, but when I do I actually can do something constructive with it from time to time.

Plant your butt in front of the net and just screen the goalie while looking for those garbage goals. Your team will appreciate it.

This weekend there was a little miscommunication and no one brought beers. No one brought their girlfriends/wives/mistresses either so we couldn't ask anyone to run to the liquor store. I had to hydrate myself with that other clear liquid that isn't vodka. I wasn't a happy camper.

So it's not beer league, but my usual 6am drop in today. There is this angry slovak guy that always comes, and he must not have been taught how to filter the **** coming out of his mouth. He is the guy that makes quiet comments under his breath at guys that are not as good as him, and he really is not that good himself. So i've been playing for 5 months or so, I'm 27 now and only played a year of peewee... so im not the greatest player. I shoot the puck on a breakeaway that goes over the net this morning, and this ****** skates up to me and says "what the hell are you doing? You play hockey like a retard". I almost lost my ****ing mind. I remain calm enough to tell him I've been playing for 5 months, and that he needs to think twice about trying to intimidate me, because it sure as hell isnt going to work. I then call him a ****ing **** sucker, and i think he is so used to people being afraid of him that he was kinda shocked. Anyways, he shut up real quick and i heckled him for about 30 minutes after that anytime he made a mistake. Im still pissed just thinking about it , but at 6'2 200lb im not taking **** from some idiot at rec hockey who wants to get all tough guy on me.

Good on ya for sticking up for yourself and making him feel like a moron

Plant your butt in front of the net and just screen the goalie while looking for those garbage goals. Your team will appreciate it.

That's one of the things the coach has told us to do. I have gotten a couple of goals that way. I know I'm not going to get them from shooting on the net, so it's my best possible chance to just get those garbage goals.

During the winter I was just playing weekly pickup hockey, there were some people who would take like 4 minute shifts then getting pissed off that they were dead tired and couldnt do anything.

Probably every other week of it, the hockey would be good fast, fairly intense and fun. Then it would be people cherry picking, no back checking/ defensive effort, long shifts from everyone, and just poor hockey in general.

So, what would you suggest would be the MOST helpful things for me to keep in mind as I play this weekend? AFAIK, everyone is doing this for fun rather than out of some desire to win the tournament, get noticed by the NHL, etc. If you had a n00b player on your team who was OK at skating (but not great) and is pretty much guaranteed not to make huge goals or anything else, but is really trying to be helpful rather than a nuisance, what would you want to see them do?

My first experience playing hockey was on a Division III NCAA women's team. 3/4 of our team had never played hockey before. We would lose all our games like 10-0. I had been playing hockey less than a year, but I could skate decently. So I focused on playing tenacious defense. I forechecked like crazy, tied up people's sticks, and stuck to my point like glue (when I played defense as wing). This actually got me a special mention from the coach. She told the rest of the team to play like me. My teammates were so demoralized about losing that they focused on what they couldn't do instead of what they *could* do.

Summary: if you're not a skilled player yet, focus on playing great defense. You can still make a big contribution to the team.

I don't understand why a team would bring a ringer to a pre-season game; seriously???? I can understand that perhaps a ringer is playing down due to the fact that he or she loves to get as much ice time as possible. But, when the ringer scores 40% of their teams goals and does spin-o-ramas with speed around a defenseman (and gets a shot off on net); then it starts to get frustrating.